Strategic Financial Services Inc. Grows Position in Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX)

Strategic Financial Services Inc. increased its position in shares of Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX) by 893.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 42,855 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after purchasing an additional 38,542 shares during the period. Strategic Financial Services Inc.’s holdings in Lam Research were worth $3,095,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of LRCX. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Lam Research by 892.7% during the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 18,578,181 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,341,902,000 after acquiring an additional 16,706,708 shares in the last quarter. Amundi raised its stake in shares of Lam Research by 7,601.9% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 12,945,172 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $990,464,000 after acquiring an additional 12,777,094 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake in shares of Lam Research by 860.4% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 11,786,808 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $851,361,000 after acquiring an additional 10,559,508 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Lam Research by 931.2% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 8,482,429 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $612,686,000 after acquiring an additional 7,659,830 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp increased its stake in Lam Research by 1.6% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,886,676 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $4,817,113,000 after purchasing an additional 94,086 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.61% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Seshasayee Varadarajan sold 110,080 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.00, for a total transaction of $9,907,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 179,084 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,117,560. This trade represents a 38.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 0.29% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have issued reports on LRCX. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Lam Research from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Wolfe Research downgraded shares of Lam Research from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price target on shares of Lam Research from $96.00 to $85.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 10th. KeyCorp raised shares of Lam Research from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $95.00 price target on the stock in a report on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $100.00 price target on shares of Lam Research in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Lam Research presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $98.22.

Lam Research Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ LRCX opened at $77.93 on Thursday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $79.59 and a 200-day simple moving average of $77.33. The stock has a market capitalization of $100.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.53. The company has a quick ratio of 1.73, a current ratio of 2.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. Lam Research Co. has a 52 week low of $68.87 and a 52 week high of $113.00.

Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The semiconductor company reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. Lam Research had a net margin of 26.49% and a return on equity of 51.86%. On average, equities analysts predict that Lam Research Co. will post 3.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lam Research Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 9th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th will be given a $0.23 dividend. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.18%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 5th. Lam Research’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 27.96%.

About Lam Research

Lam Research Corporation designs, manufactures, markets, refurbishes, and services semiconductor processing equipment used in the fabrication of integrated circuits. The company offers ALTUS systems to deposit conformal films for tungsten metallization applications; SABRE electrochemical deposition products for copper interconnect transition that offers copper damascene manufacturing; SOLA ultraviolet thermal processing products for film treatments; and VECTOR plasma-enhanced CVD ALD products.